Natalya Ovchinnikova

An urgent issue in modern higher education, particularly when teaching English in a technical university, is the contradiction between the need for systematic monitoring of language skills development and the ineffectiveness of traditional assessment methods. These methods take up a significant amount of academic time and prevent the adaptation of the educational process to the individual needs of students. The aim of this study is to explore a dynamic approach to resolving contradictions: to evaluate the development of English language proficiency levels of technical university students based on their entrance and final tests in order to enhance the effectiveness of monitoring language acquisition. To achieve the goal, the following tasks were set: 1) To analyze the theoretical aspects of testing as an assessment tool. 2) To describe the stages and specifics of the entrance and final testing at the Russian University of Transport (MIIT). 3) To analyze the results of the entrance and final testing of 1st-year students of the Foreign Language Department of RUT (MIIT). 4) To evaluate the effectiveness of the applied testing format and to identify promising areas for its improvement. The testing results demonstrate the effectiveness of the applied format and its compliance with its purpose. The use of systematic entrance and final tests allows us to effectively monitor the dynamics of the development of English language proficiency among technical university students. This helps us to tailor educational materials to individual student needs, and as a result, increase the effectiveness of their learning. Based on a detailed analysis of the testing results, areas for further development were identified, in particular, the need to adjust the teaching methods for level B1. The theoretical significance of this research is the analysis of contemporary methods used to assess students in technical universities when learning English, as well as identifying the most effective methods for monitoring the progress of learning materials. The practical significance of this work lies in the analysis of the results from two years of testing, which shows a positive trend towards students' progress from A1 and A2 levels to higher levels, as well as a noticeable increase in their language proficiency. Additionally, the study demonstrates the transition of some students from the entry-level A0 to higher proficiency levels.